The Bothell man who is accused of killing his estranged wife early last year will answer to a jury during a trial scheduled May 2, 2014.

The decision was made during Alan Justin Smith’s trial setting conference on Dec. 13  in Snohomish County Court.

Smith remains in the Snohomish County jail after pleading not guilty to murder charges. A judge ordered Smith’s bail to be set at $1 million during his arraignment on July 22 after prosecutors refiled first-degree murder charges in Snohomish County Superior Court on June 19.

Smith, 38, will have to come up with $100,000 to post a bond. His wife, Susann Smith, 37, was found brutally murdered on Feb. 12.

Alan Smith planned the murder, researched how to clean up the crime scene and “savagely beat, cut and ultimately drowned” his estranged wife, wrote Deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson in court documents.

Despite the fact that the murder weapon has not been identified, an autopsy states that Susann Smith could have been killed with the same type of rubber mallet identified by a former girlfriend as being owned by Alan Smith.

Bothell Police detectives utilized 15 search warrants to build the case against Alan Smith, including one to match his footprint to bloody ones found at the crime scene.

Alan Smith moved back into the home two months after the murder and was then arrested for the crime in June. He allegedly confessed to a friend “Yes, I did it to her,” court documents state.

Susann Smith was attacked and beaten in the master bedroom of the home and dragged to the bathroom where she was found with water in her lungs, the documents continue. Susann Smith has 22 separate head injuries according to the autopsy, including a fatal blow to the skull.